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The Real Boy

Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs is a book that I’ve been meaning to read for awhile but somehow have never got around to. So when I saw her new book, The Real Boy, on the shelf at the library I picked it up for me and John, the resident fantasy novel lover in our house.

Oscar is an apprentice to Caleb, the last magician left on a magic-filled island. Oscar has always known he’s different: he doesn’t understand human interaction and he doesn’t remember any of his earliest years in an orphanage. He may not understand people but he does understand plants. He knows the forest and the language of herbs and medicines. On the island where Oscar lives, there are the magic people who live in the Barrow and there are the Shining City where the Shining People live. The Shining People don’t have any magic or the ability to use magic but they are beautiful and rich and they never get sick.

Oscar’s quiet life is turned upside down when Caleb goes off to the mainland on business and Caleb’s apprentice, Wolf, comes to a bad end. At the same time the Shining People’s children become ill, something seems to be happening to the magic in the forest and there seems to be a monster living in the Barrow. It is up to Oscar and his one friend, Callie, the healer’s apprentice, to figure out what is going on on their island and how to fix it.

I really liked this book. There is somewhat of a reference to Pinocchio, as you may have guessed from the title. However, it’s not really a re-telling of that fairytale. There were twists I didn’t see coming and ones I expected and was wrong about. It’s somewhat of a quieter fantasy, the story is as much about Oscar’s struggle to learn how to become a friend and how to interact with other people as it is about magic. I think for this reason I liked it better than John, who really digs dragons and elves and wizards and epic battles. I wondered at times if Oscar is supposed to be autistic but no diagnosis is spelled out in the book. Still, it may be a good book for a kid struggling with fitting in or one to help a kid understand a friend who might be on the autism spectrum or a bit quirky. I saw The Real Boy described on Goodreads and being “for the Neville Longbottoms” who loved Harry Potter and I thought that was a great description. Oscar is much more of a Neville than a Harry. All in all, I found this an endearing story with an intriguing plot that was beautifully written. I would highly recommend it.